Close, but no cigar: SpaceX reusable rocket sticks landing but tips over

SpaceX recently tried for a second time to land its Falcon 9 rocket on a floating drone barge and for the second time, the experiment ended in explosive fashion. If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.

SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk said via Twitter that the rocket landed fine but excess lateral velocity caused it to tip over post-landing. That’s better than the January landing in which the rocket came down at an angle and violently exploded on impact.

The eventual goal is to be able to successfully land a rocket in order to reuse it. Musk previously said that if one can figure out how to effectively reuse rockets like we do airplanes, the cost of access to space will be reduced by as much as a factor of a hundred.

No word yet on when SpaceX will try for a third time.

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